US special forces – including SEAL Team 6, which killed Osama bin Laden – will take part in a large war drill in South Korea as part of a plan to “decapitate” the leadership in Pyongyang, according to a report.

The SEAL team will join the annual Foal Eagle and Key Resolve exercises between the two allies for the first time, along with the Army’s Rangers, Delta Force and Green Berets, Yonhap News Agency of South Korea reported.

“A bigger number of and more diverse US special operation forces will take part in this year’s Foal Eagle and Key Resolve exercises to practice missions to infiltrate into the North, remove the North’s war command and demolition of its key military facilities,” a military official told Yonhap, asking not to be named.

The Foal Eagle exercise started March 1 and will run through the end of April. On Monday, the Key Resolve computer-simulated command post exercise began and will run through March 24.

Seoul and Washington said the joint maneuvers are purely defensive, but Pyongyang has denounced them as rehearsal for an invasion.

North Korea last week said it would pursue its nuclear deterrent and weapons program – saying the US-South Korean joint military exercises are a model for a “pre-emptive nuclear attack” against Pyongyang, Reuters reported.

South Korean defense officials have confirmed that the drill will practice taking out the North Korean leadership, the Daily Star reported.

“A bigger number of and more diverse US special operation forces will take part in this year’s Foal Eagle and Key Resolve exercises to practice missions to infiltrate into the North, remove the North’s war command and demolition of its key military facilities,” a South Korean defense official told Yonhap.